The first lady of Tanzania, Salma Kikwete, addressed students from the School of International Affairs on Friday afternoon as the keynote speaker of the annual African Economic Forum, hosted by the Institute of African Studies.
This year’s panel, focused on the “capital investments in Africa designed to spur a dynamic economic environment across the vast continent” according to its Web site, featured global businessmen and investors with a particular emphasis on African development.
First lady Kikwete called the forum in her speech—which was delivered in Swahili with English translations projected on a screen in the auditorium—a “clear example of how we can come together as human beings to make progress toward unity.”
“Human capital is about enabling individuals with the knowledge, tools, and well-being to contribute resources to society,” Kikwete said.
Kikwete spoke of her activist work in the country, focused mostly on education, health care, and HIV/AIDS prevention for young girls, infants, and mothers. While Kikwete emphasized the stability of her country, she highlighted the developmental challenges Tanzania currently confronts in the face of social and economic development, such as changing economic partnerships and navigating new planes of economic opportunities.
In a country with a high maternal mortality rate leading to nearly two million orphans, Kikwete stressed the importance of holistically approaching the problem of disadvantaged women. She has founded a primary program to sponsor secondary schools in the country, and continues to promote services to address adolescent sexual reproductive health and newborn health care.
“As a teacher, I witnessed many children with potential, particularly young girls, who did not have the chance to go to school, stay in school, and ultimately pursue their dreams,” she said. “To view every child as our own is to realize our interconnectedness and interdependence in this global world.”
IAS Director Mamadou Diouf said he saw the panel and its key speakers as essential to the “open, consolidated, reinforced conversation” in African studies that he had been striving for since the institute’s reopening this year.
He described the panel’s goal as “making Columbia one of the spaces in which the African debate is happening, is going on, but also [is] shaped. ... The vitality of the African debate on campus in time molds the creation of the curriculum.”
